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I fall clearly on the side of hating the self-checkouts. I used to work as a cashier at a big grocery chain, so I know what I am doing when I scan things. The self-checkout lanes have their scanners set up to not work correctly, or at least to not work quickly. Like I said, I know how to scan things properly and I have sat there and tried to re-scan the same item 15 times. I'll use them, but only because I'm pretty much forced to when the only other register open is jammed with 4 people with completely full shopping carts.
I also argue that they have cost jobs to cashiers in a big way here. The stores around here that do have self-checkout, now have 1 cashier open and another one 'supervising' 8 self checkout lines. They used to have 4-6 cashiers up there full-time with another 2-3 staff that could come in if they got busy up front. Now if they get busy, they direct people to the self-checkouts.
I don't know the whole story on some of these stores. Another poster raised the valid point that maybe implementing the self-checkout helped the stores stay afloat where they otherwise would have closed. I don't know. They certainly didn't cut prices to compensate me for doing the cashier's job for them. They raised prices on everything during the gas price hikes last year and they've stayed up ever since then.
Another thing that no one has chimed in on is the issue of self-checkout 'shrinkage' as they refer to it in the industry. Not that I do it myself, or endorse doing it, but I have read blog posts from people who wring up all of their produce as 'bananas', which is usually substantially less than say apples or grapes by weight. Or stack 2-3 candy bars on the one that you ring through, etc. I'm sure that stores have run the numbers on this and made their decisions based on the likelihood of losses vs. the cost savings of employing fewer cashiers.
Well, that's my 2 cents.
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You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.
- Albert Einstein
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